How to repel snakes around your house, garden or farm
Snakes tend to follow their prey, which generally like to cling to the edges of walls, fences, the base of trees, etc. These are the places where snakes are most likely to pick up the fresh scents of mice, rats, and other rodents.
Some studies have shown that it is possible to use some substances that have a pungent and long-lasting nature that affect the smell mechanism of snakes in such a way that they will prefer to move away from the vicinity of the substance.
Naphthalene is one of those substances. Naphthalene is the substance used in mothballs (and you know how spicy it is). Mothballs are really any of certain types of wax balls that have been infused with mothballs. Naphthalene can also be purchased in liquid form from specialized dealers. In my experience, you can spray it on porous stone, concrete, wood, dry leaves, trees, etc. All of these places are good places to spray mothballs as long as they are not washed down with water afterwards.
In small areas, mothballs can be good because the substance gets trapped inside a ball of wax and therefore its release will be slow and over a long period of time. In larger areas, you will need to purchase naphthalene in liquid form and spray it directly onto surfaces. Application should be repeated every two months during snake season for best results. Naphthalene will not harm the environment or cause any lasting damage to the snake. It will simply make him go find food elsewhere.
If you use this substance to repel snakes, you will have to control the rodent population by other means on your own. Snakes help you with rodent control and the fact that they also pose a potential threat to you is simply an unfortunate accident of nature.
A good natural method of controlling mice, and much more effective than snakes, is to encourage a barn owl (or two) on your property. They will eat many mice in one night. Snakes will only eat one every few days. Nest boxes for owls can be purchased in specialized stores or on the Internet.